Mandatory voting bill

Gujarat being the first state in India where voting will become mandatory to all the registered voters of the state with the bill (Declaring voting compulsory) getting approved by the state assembly. Registered voters in Gujarat who are absent will be summoned by the local election officer to submit a valid reason for being absent with proof within a month, absentisum without a valid reason will result in voter being declared as defaulter.

This is a good initiative from the state government to strengthen the democratic process by brining all the registered voters to election booth. State government also plans to forward the same bill to the central government so that the same status quo can be implemented on a national level.

The reason for making voting mandatory might be many. There is a low the turnout of voters to discharge their duty in most of the election, because of which the true spirit of the will of the people is not reflected in the electoral mandate. It is mandatory public holiday whenever there is an election, but people hardly exercise there option; instead they sit at home and enjoy the holiday. Government spends a huge amount of money in conducting the election process and low turnaround of people result in higher expenditure of acquiring each vote.

People on the other side have there own reasons for not casting a vote. They feel that nothing is going to change by there vote and they can’t bring a change in the system. But imagine if there is 100% turnaround of people then the real picture of election process will emerge and the winning candidate will have a clear mandate from the people, fake voting will be a passé, expenditure per vote made by government will come down and a clear mandate from the people will help in forming a stable government at each level.

image source: scientificamerican.com

“Option” left me with no option.

Day Thursday 24th Dec-09, Market made a V shaped recovery in the second half, I saw nifty trading somewhere around 5150 and my sixth sense said that “it is overvalued” and it should see some corrections. Though I was very skeptical about taking a short position in nifty and was totally clueless about how and what to judge in the market.

I decided to use one more instrument of trading i.e. options “call and put” for the first time, as there was a long week end ahead and only three trading days left for the year closing and contract closure of December, I though that nifty will see some correction in those three trading days.

But as usual; the fate of my financial transaction; the instrument that I sell appreciates and the instrument I bought depreciates, I took a put of 5000 nifty December at certain premium and since then nifty has appreciated by almost 50 points and the premium for the put option has deprecated by 40%. Though this was my first transaction in the options and was purely based on speculation and what is called sixth sense “which seems dosen;t seems to be prudent in my financial decisions”; I was at minimum risk of losing the premium if nifty doesn’t approaches the opted price figure. Still 2 days to go I’m keeping my fingers crossed.


For those who want to understand the technical terms here is a brief description

Option

An option contract gives the buyer the right, but not the obligation to buy/sell an underlying asset at a pre-determined price on or before a specified time. The option buyer acquires a right, while the option seller takes on an obligation. It is the buyer’s prerogative to exercise the acquired right. If and when the right is exercised, the seller has to honour it. The underlying asset for option contracts may be stocks, indices, commodity futures, currency or interest rates

Types of options

Options can be classified as ‘call’ options and ‘put’ options. When you buy a ‘call’ option, on a stock, you acquire a right to buy the stock. And when you buy a ‘put’ option, you acquire a right to sell the stock. You can also sell a ‘call’ option, in which, you will acquire an obligation to deliver the stock. And when you sell a ‘put’ option, you acquire an obligation to buy the stock.

Option premium

Option premium is the consideration paid upfront by the option holder (buyer of the option) to the option writer (seller of the option). The option holder gets the right to buy / sell the underlying

Strike price or the exercise price of the option

The right or obligation to buy or sell the underlying asset is always at a pre-decided price known as the ‘strike price’ or ‘exercise price’, which is linked to the prevailing price of the underlying asset in the cash market.

Technical terms source: www.financialexpress.com
Image source: seekingalpha.com

We are not working today.

Have you ever been to bank on the last day of any quarter? You might have found that banks are not working to there fullest potential, clearance, withdrawal of big amounts and other processing either closed or very slow, The reason that is stated is “Quaterly Closing” and no transaction can be made.

I believe banking is a life time service and when i say life time it cannot be time bound. It has to be available 27X7X365 there should be limited holiday’s and offs, banks are as important as Emergency services. Probably this the bankers might have thought of and “ATM” might be an outcome of this.

Similarly for Share trading also there is a constraint of timings, the bourses trade between 9.55am to 3.30pm. But matters of fact, persons who are salaried/ businessman who knows/ understands the concept are not able to participate in the trading because they are engaged with his own assignments.

If the market is open 27X7X365 there might be a lot of participation from the retail investors. Working class people will be hooked to there terminals after reaching home and finishing off with there household chores, housewife’s can participate while watching there television soaps and what not can happen if there is an extension in timings. Foreign investment will increase as it will be easy for them to track the market at there timings.

Recently there was an announcement of extended timings but because the entire machinery of banking, clearance and clearing houses were not in sink with the extended timings the decision was rolled back. I feel that in this competitive world we need to work more and harder to increase the productivity. To progress and excel we need to multiply our efforts and commitments and we should come out of the “9 to 5” mentality.

That’s a well accepted fact that there will be an additional load on the entire machinery of banking, clearance clearing and broking houses but that is what they are meant for, they are getting a handsome commission from the transaction and its a service that they are offering and they cannot offer a “denial of services”.

No matter it’s a festival or any big event hospitals, emergency services are open 27X7X365 so why can’t India work in 27X7X365 mode. Services has to be at convenience of the customer and not at the convenience of the Service provider. Time demands that we should come of the barriers of timings and holidays and work beyond our limits and redefine our exisiting limits.

Image source: fahahm.wordpress.com

Story of Telangana

Telangana is in news with lot of agitation and political statement floating over the issue of a separate Telangana state. It was on Nov 29 that the five-decade-old problem heated up when Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao was arrested by the police ahead of his fast unto death to achieve a Telangana state.

He continued his fast in jail and hospital for 11 days while Telangana was boiling with mass protests and violence. Rao’s deteriorating condition and the explosive situation in the region forced the centre to announce at midnight on Dec 9 that the process for forming a Telangana state would be initiated.

Mass resignations by legislators from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions cutting across party lines to protest the centre’s move to bifurcate the state. Mass protests, shutdowns, hunger strikes, road and rail blockades began in 13 districts of the two regions from Dec 11 even as Telangana was celebrating Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s announcement.
Thirteen days of protests paralyzed normal life and the government was forced to alter the statement. On the evening of Dec 23, Chidambaram made the latest statement stressing the need to hold wide ranging consultations over the issue in view of the altered situation in the state
No sooner had Chidambaram finished his statement, protesters were on the streets in Hyderabad and the rest of Telangana - burning buses and government offices. Rising above political affiliations, MPs and legislators started submitting resignations. The 48-hour shutdown Thursday called by them has brought the focus back on the region even as protests ceased in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema.

What I feel that one needs to have a clear plan to separate these two states, not just geographically but also administratively, to avoid chaos and implosion of administrative systems, which seems to be happening. The investors need confidence that the ongoing project commitments will be honored and an effective transitional arrangement will be made.

The question arises here is that what will be the Cental Goverment stand if every few cities come up with seperate state demand or rather few state demanding for a seperate country all together. This is a good example of "Divide and Rule" Strategy. We Indian should stand united above all cast, creed and religion and the only objective we should have is Progress. "Nation First" should be the thought process everyone should carry.

About Andhra Pradesh


Andhra Pradesh (AP) is the fifth largest State in the Indian Union having an area of 275,909 sq. kms and a population of about 75-80 million. AP is bound in the North by Orissa and Madhya Pradesh States, in the East by bay of Bengal with a 960 km long coast line, in the South by Tamilnadu State, and in the West by Karnataka and Maharashtra. AP forms a major link between the north and the south of India.


Andhra Pradesh consists of three distinct regions, namely, Andhra, Rayalaseema and Talangana. Andhra and Rayalaseema were part of Madras province of the British empire. For approximately 400 years, Telangana was part of Hyderabad State, an independent kingdom ruled by Muslim Qutub Shahi and Nizam dynasties. Thanks to the sacrifice of Sriramulu Potti, Andhra and Rayalaseema were separated from Madras State in 1953.

Andhra state (Andhra and Rayalaseema) was the first state that was formed purely on linguistic nationality, like many European states. Later Andhra merged with Telangana in 1956, based on their linguistic and national affinity, to form the present state of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad as the capital city. However, this has resulted in two major agitations: Jai Telangana in 1969 and Jai Andhra 1972, both for separate states.


Content Source:

vepachedu.org
sundayposts.blogspot.com
blog.taragana.com

Image source : topnews.in

Opportunities knocking.

Private sector was holding there investment until the conclusion of Copenhagen conference. As the future investment in clean technology was heavily dependent on the outcome of the 15th Conference of Parties (COP 15) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), private sector was anxious to hear the target world leaders would have committed to and the mitigation actions developing countries would have to take.

Prior to the conference major of the countries proposed plans and targets to further reduce their emissions; however, all of those plans were contingent on reaching an international agreement.

With no concrete conclusion deriving of the conference and many developing countries having an opinion that climate change is a moral issue, caused by developed countries and it should be solved at their cost, the counter argument was that developing countries are causing greater extend of damage to the climate due to faster industrialization and deforesting, so owners are with them.

Every one from the industrialist to governments might be relaxed as of now and relaxing on there chairs because if any concreate decision would have arrieved at Copenhagen conference then they could have been in trouble to comply with those commitments. But this is not the time to push back to our seats and relax, instead this is a time to make strategy, (What is strategy : Strategic is nothing but being different in the context one is operating).

This a opportunity knocking at the doorsteps for People/entrepreneurs who are interested in cleaner energy, people who are farsighted and can see the benefits of implementing a Cleaner energy project at this juncture, I Consider this as Value Investing and the investment made today will reap immense profit in the coming future.


Wind, not the sail determine the way we go…

Image source: farmersguardian.com

Value Investing

Value investing is all about spotting the areas/ players which can yield better results in the near future but as of now today those areas/ players are low valued. Based on the same priniciples I found Wind energy segment worth focusing.

Looking at the commitment we as a country have in terms of reducing the carbon emission, Wind power project are turning to be a lucrative investment avenues and to add more government is announcing more perks in terms of tax holidays, commitment of purchasing power generated and flexible tariff. (Refer Govt to give incentive to wind power producers.)

Fossil fuels are the source for 70% of 90,000 MW installed capacity for electricity generation, Hydro-electricity contributes about 25%, and the remaining is mostly from nuclear power plants (NPPs).

Current stocks of Fossil fuels in India are not sufficient enough to suffice our needs of power (about 70% oil is imported), with currency getting dearer and government imposing emission norms (It is accepted that Indian power plants are highly polluting Refer CO2 emission by Indian power plants increases) the cost of per unit of power generated through fossil fuel will be compatible with non-conventional energy.

So I believe this is the right time to do a Value Investing and initiate a Power project that is eco friendly having early breakeven and having subsidiary projects of livestock farming, organic farming and carbon credit trading.

Image source: http://www.cedarcapital.ie/

Incentives to wind power project

In my previous article “Copenhagen before and after” I have mentioned the perks Government will be taking in the immediate future to promote non conventional energy.

Today only I came across news in business standard stating that

Government will give 50 Paisa as incentive for a unit of electricity generated by wind power producers for 4-10 years, this sop will be given under the government's generation-based incentive (GBI) for grid interactive wind power project.As per the GBI scheme, incentive will be provided to wind power producers at 50 paise per unit of electricity fed into the grid for a period not less than four years and the maximum of 10 years.

In India the installed capacity of wind energy project is approximately 10000 MW and India is ranked 5th in terms of installed wind power capacity. There is still huge potential and far away from exhausted. According to Indian Wind Energy Association The unexploited resource availability has the potential to sustain the growth of wind energy sector in India in the years to come. During the financial Year 2008-2009 around 1465 MW has been added to the total Indian wind power. (Figures are rounded off)

India has a lot to do in terms of projecting the growth of non conventional energy and allowing entrepreneurs to set up wind power projects. On the other hand our neighbor, China has more than tripled its target for wind power capacity to 100 giga watts by 2020, likely making it the world's fastest growing market for wind energy technology.

The other problem entrepreneurs like me feel is about financing of the projects. I have a project report ready with me for a power project (non conventional) but not able to find a venture capitalist to fund the project. Any power project requires high power (money power) as an input to yield real power (electricity) & Profits. After the slowdown not a single VC’s have ventured in this sort of project because of the obvious reason “high investment”.

But I’m sure that I will be able to find a VC for my project as government is already working with lot of sops in terms of tax holiday’s, lower interest rate loans and fixing the tariff. These initiatives will open new avenues to VC’S and dreamer like me

Wind, not the sails determine the way we go..."

Celebrity Endorsement.

If a product or service is strategically designed and the customer feels delight after using that product or service and the if the experience is incomparable with the peer competitors than customer marries product/service.

To create and deliver a product/ service which is loved by the customer, the deliverable has to be unique, designed and developed keeping customer interest in mind and should be difficult to be copied/replicated by the competitors. If right strategies are followed for the product design and delivery then the brands can prevented themselves from turning to commodities.

There are lot many similar products (in hot drinks, electronics, sports gear etc), competing for the same customer segment, with there products being identical and compatible to each others in terms of price, quality and customer experiences. To distinguish themselves from there competitors they are forced to endorse celebrities for there marketing campaign as a result of which there final cost of product increases.

A close observation to the brand endorsement will revel that the celebrities keep on changing (take example of legendry golf player) based on the face value. It doesn’t really add much to the quality and deliverable of the product if “xyz” is brand ambassador for that and neither it is affected if “xyz” is replaced by the someone else.

The deliverable of company remains same and neither does it add any value to the customer by endorsing a specific celebrity.

One company (communication Industry) strategically entering into new mode of advertisement by using “zoozoo” (Dummy but live characters) for advertising its products and services. The benefit the company has in long term and short term are:

1. The company need not have to worry for endorsing celebrities as the character can be performed by anyone and everyone.


2. The advertisements are of low budget.


3. The advertisements are highly recognized and are to the target(delivering the message clearly).


4. No voice over effect is used, so dependency to a specific person voice is minimized.


5. Being low cost the company can by additional slots of the advertisement time.
   

You will also like to read Tiger Woods and the Coming Decline of Celebrity Endorsements

Mini Bombay

I happened to visit Indore (my birth place) which is also known as mini Bombay and I was astonished to see the way it has developed in last 5-10 years. Indore which is a major trading & educational hub, business capital of Madhya Pradesh boasts on its location on National Highway and good connectivity with Mumbai and other trading centers and that is the reason it is also called mini Bombay.

The founder of the Indore dynasty was Malhar Rao Holkar (1694-1766). In 1724, the Peshwa at Pune,delighted by his soldierly prowess, gave him command of 500 horseback soldiers and appointed him as the Peshwa's chief general in the Malwa with headquarters at Indore. In 1733, Peshwa gifted him the Indore area, thereby catapulting him to the ownership of a vast domain stretching from the Deccan to the Malwa table land. He gradually became independent of the Peshwa central rule and by the time of his death, he was the de facto ruler of Malwa.


Though Indore dynasty was ruled and established by Marathi speaking people, today Marathi language is heard rarely rather it is lost in the city. I remember real gentlemen (Marathi manus) of Indore and the congested streets which have been taken over by swanky buildings and roads and life style has taken a sea level change.

There is no one to take care and preserve the heritage (I mean language here) of the city and worry for the Marathi manus, the story does not end here, there are other cities who have the same story, Ujjain, Gwalior, Boarda (Vadodara) are the other cities which I believe are in the same league. There are lot many Palaces which has been converted to school, colleges, hospitals, museum but people living in the vicinity of those palaces, or enjoying the services hardly know the history and neither the people living in those cities try to preserve the heritage.

People are busy with there own agenda’s and the common man is getting lost in the concrete jungle. City has progressed a lot in last years but at a cost of what?

Image source: dpchallange.com

Copenhagen Before & After

Before Copenhagen meet Indian government projected a 20-25% reduction (From year 2005 level) in carbon emission by the year end 2020 under the U N framework, even though this commitment is not presently quantified. It is anticipated that Indian foreign policy has to face immense pressure from the international community to have quantified limitation or reduction commitments.

Developing countries have a parallel market for carbon trading among them with potential to implement it, especially among India and china, who are the largest sellers of carbon credits and Japan which is the largest buyer of the carbon credits

At the moment, India has drawn up a National Action Plan on Climate Change, which includes increasing solar power generation and other non conventional energy resources and improving energy efficiency.

To bring down carbon emission at the national level government will have to promote non conventional energy projects and plantation immensely and will be offering high incentives on the same. At present, India is largely agriculture and service sector based economy (which is low carbon intensive) but is expected to grow in manufacturing sector (which is high carbon intensive). And this growth might experience difficulties as a result of the new target.

Image source: heatingoil.com

What is Strategy

Being strategic is nothing but being different in the context you are operating. Being strategic is nothing but being different – the moment you are not unique, you get copied and you lose your market share.

Strategies exist at several levels in any organisation - ranging from the overall business (or group of businesses) through to individuals working in it.

Corporate Strategy is concerned with the overall purpose and scope of the business to meet stakeholder expectations. This is a crucial level since it is heavily influenced by investors in the business and acts to guide strategic decision-making throughout the business. Corporate strategy is often stated explicitly in a "mission statement".

Business Unit Strategy is concerned more with how a business competes successfully in a particular market. It concerns strategic decisions about choice of products, meeting needs of customers, gaining advantage over competitors, exploiting or creating new opportunities etc.

Operational Strategy is concerned with how each part of the business is organised to deliver the corporate and business-unit level strategic direction. Operational strategy therefore focuses on issues of resources, processes, people etc.

How Strategy is Managed - Strategic Management

In its broadest sense, strategic management is about taking "strategic decisions" - decisions that answer the questions above.

In practice, a thorough strategic management process has three main components, shown in the figure below:

Strategic Analysis

This is all about the analyzing the strength of businesses' position and understanding the external factors that may influence that position. The strategy evaluation and choice depends on the analysis of the following five key factors

1. PREST Analysis - a technique for understanding the "environment" in which a business operates. Political, regulatory, environmental, social and technological analysis


2. ICA: Industry and competitor analysis (includes Five Forces Analysis)


3. RCS: Resource and capability analysis


4. Cultural analysis


5. Stakeholder’s expectation
   

The result of above analysis help in swot analysis

PREST+ICA = Opportunities and Threats
RCA +cultural analysis = Strengths and weakness
Stakeholder analysis = Vision and goals

On the basis of above analysis, strategic options are generated. Strategic options nothing but different business models
1) Customer selection
2) Competition selection
3) Value =P+S+E (Products+ Solution +Experience)
4) Value delivery model i.e. the way value is delivered.

References :
Prof. Ranjan Das Professor IIM-Calcutta
thestrategyacademy.org
&
tutor2u.net

Image source: povray.tashcorp.net

When boss losses respect

There is some basic requirement which a boss needs to address and understand in order to win respect of his team.

1. Employee should be respected : Respect reciprocate, to win respect of the Employee, Employee should be respected first.
   
   
2. Employee dislike micro-managers and under- managers: Employee like to be treated like adults by there managers and hate micromanagers, they also don’t like under-managers where they receive little or no support from there managers.
   
   
3. Meeting an necessary evil: Employees don’t like meeting as a rule; but managers can make the meeting interesting by planning meetings carefully, imposing strict time limits, making goals and action items clear, and by creating a conducive environment where employees can voice their opinions.
   
   
4. Employees need appreciation: All creativity, ideas, innovation should be appreciated, awarded and acknowledged in absence of which employee feel de-motivated.
   

Management by Democracy

In my previous article "Human resource management"I have put across a comparison and tried to re-present “management” in a more easy and understandable way. Human resource is a functional area of the organization and many such functional areas lead to overall organization, and the person who is leading the organization has more responsibilities to deliver and is the only individual responsible for the fate of the organization.

Now the question is that whether that individual should be free to take decision or is there a better way to do that. “Prudent decision”.

I suggest that there are ways to take prudent decision; the key for that is “management by democracy”. Being the person in charge doesn't mean that he needs to have all the answers and neither he/she should pretend that he knows everything (Real business geniuses don't pretend they know everything). Decision should always taken in a democratic way by gathering subject matter experts and domain experts. But if the boss thinks that he knows everything (Aham Brahmasmi: Ravana had a gut-feeling that he knows everything and his decision are correct) and those decision are leading to fatal problems and downfall of the organization then there should be a provision of employees vote their boss out of office.

Management by democracy will reduce concentration of power in one hand and will reduce the possibilities of individual treating/ thinking himself as God. There will be provision of employee generating a trouble ticket the way customer raising ticket and for which a response is required.

Management by democracy requires A 360 Degree feedback implementation. Generally senior managers don’t want to be exposed on there flaws and try to avoid anything that evaluates there way of managing the things, they avoid answering the queries and avoid responsibility of bad outcomes.

India being a Command and control society from centuries; we have a habit of controlling our kids (by virtue of our power & age) till they get married and have there own kids. Command and control is the easiest management style but it may not be very productive for the organization, while democratic accountable model is very difficult on management but it is very productive.

Note: “Innovation emerges from the bottom up, unpredictably and improvisationally, and it's often only after the innovation has occurred that everyone realizes what's happened. The paradox is that innovation can't be planned, it can't be predicted; it has to be allowed to emerge."

“Boss is always right” is an adage but if boss believes in the said concept, then he might be instrumental in downfall of the. If the top notch carry this attitude, they are bound to loose respect of there team members and have to face there rage. Rage need not be a direct expression but may be in there action and behavior.

image source: incollaboration.ning.com/groups

Human Resource Management

I have observed/ read lot many blogs, articles regarding human resource management and to my surprise the readership & respoponses to these sort of articles is amazing; might be the readers try to read the story as if it is written for them and try to correlate there personal experiences with the story.

The same observation was for my earlier post of “How to retain talent”, “People leave managers not the company” & “Making a Happy workplace”; people candidly written there observation and comments. As far as my opinion is concerned HRM is the easiest job in the organization functional area; having said this it is also the toughest job among all the functions.

I consider this as an easy job because if the employees are treated well, nurtured well, given an opportunity to grow well, motivated properly then they can be an asset to the company in years to come. It’s the job of parenting; we treat our kids in well manner, we try and encourage them to excel in various areas, we provide them opportunity to grow, we motivate them to do difficult jobs and so on so forth. We even create ground rules in the family which will allow kids to take the shape of vessel and excel in the right direction of life. Human resource management is as simple as that; managing many kids at single time.

I consider this as toughest job because giving right direction to kids, imparting them human values, a sense of understanding, love & maturity is a difficult proposition and think of implementing all the things to many kids simultaneously.

Would like to have your opinion on the article.

Image source: girlstartblog.files.wordpress.com

Email marketing: Efficiency & effectiveness

In my earlier post “ROI Advertisement” I have elaborated the ways and means to track the advertisement. Now days email marketing is emerging as a cheap and convenient way to stay connected with the customer and to promote the product & services (the obvious reason being the high cost of print and broadcast marketing and there limited reach)

When any of the process of methodology is in nascent stage we hardly talk of effectiveness and efficiency but as the time passes we put efficiency and effectiveness clause in the counting.

You might be wondering as if how to determine the efficiency and effectiveness of email marketing process.

An Email marketing campaign as process can be gauged on the below clause for measuring efficiency.

1. The % of emails delivered out of the total email executed
2. The minimum time duration in which email can be executed.
3. The % of email read by the end users (ensures that mails were delivered in there inboxes and not in junk mail; email can be tracked for opened/ not opened even for the accounts in hotmail, yahoo etc. though they do not allow any build in feature where the users can send a read receipt. Readt ROI Advertisement)
4. The % of email bounced with categorized reason like inbox full, blocked at the gateway etc

An Email marketing campaign as process can be gauged on the below clause for measuring Effectiveness.

1. The % of email read by the end users. Email marketing campaign considered as effective when the number of email opened/ read is very high; indicating that the subject line was effective and forced the recipient to open the email.
2. The % of user replied or took any action in the mail like clicking the link, button etc.
3. Last but not the least the % of goal achieved for which the email marketing campaign was targeted for.
   
   I will also elaborate measures to increase efficiency and effectiveness of email marketing; so keep visiting…..

image source: thefinestwriter.com

Top 10 Bankruptcy

1. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.


2. Washington Mutual Inc.


3. WorldCom Inc.


4. GM


5. Enron Corp.


6. Conseco Inc.


7. Chrysler


8. Thornburg Mortgage


9. Pacific Gas & Electric Company


10. Texaco Inc.

Black Friday……

Dream city (A lot of hype and, fantasy, tall buildings and fantasy islands) causing my dreams to crash. My portfolio is down by 10-15% and still bottom seems a little bit away, Global market taking clues from Dubai episode and there is blood bath on the bourses. An Indian index has bottomed out by 3% yesterday and 4-5% today making it to 10% approximate fall from Wednesday’s level.

An old adage still hold true Spend less than you earn, and you will be always happy.

Dubai’s having heavy debts, amounting to about $80 billion including the government and the conglomerates it controls. Investors in Dubai were given an early chance to get into the spirit of things. The emirate’s government asked creditors of Dubai World, one of three big government-backed conglomerates, to agree to a standstill on repayments until May 30th 2010 at the earliest

Credit-rating have downgraded all government-related debt. Whether the standstill counts as a default depends on whether Dubai is asking investors to defer their claims or telling them to.

But i'm very optimistic about Dubai that it will come out of the situation and will not disappoint my portfolio

Image source: iacsit.org

Future in futures ….

Firstly when I came across the concept of futures I was very much thrilled and excited and I was on top of world, as to purchase anything in equity or commodity I have to shell out only 6-10% margin money. I thought I can play long and short in all the futures and make quick bucks. Though my expectations from the future market were not very high (in terms of profits) and the profit margin I was targeting was hardly .15 %, the moment I had that much margin I wanted to exit my position.

Till this time it was fine and sounded interesting, but

Suddenly I have lost my hope; my faith has also been shattered.

This has happened surprisingly, for what I was never feared.

I’m left with nothing at all, my happy time ended so small.

As I did transaction based on some assumption that how the market will react, but as you know the assumptions are not always true. The same thing happened to me in all my future transactions, market reacted reverse to my assumption and as these type of trading are high risk prone and are calculated on mark to market basis I made huge losses. The losses are enough to eat up all my profits earned till day in the equity market, but this losses gave me a lesson that the future market is when you have surety of the market movement and you should have deep pockets to enter in the future market.

How short is short

The second thing that proved deadly to me is taking a short position in the market. When you take a short position you assume that the market will fall and you will purchase at lower level, but the things turned to be reversed, Instrument appreciated and I was forced to purchase them at a higher level. I was forced because the transaction has to be squared off within the same day. (Where as if you buy something and it depreciates you have an option to hold it for a long). After making some wrong transactions I learned the lesson that you should hold the instrument to play short in the market so that in case if it appreciates then you have the instrument to settle the trade.

Image source: online-stock-trading-guide.com

Making a happy workplace

When one doesn’t like his/her job getting to the job become more difficult, but one continues with the job because of the perquisites the company is offering or during the wait time till one grabs a good job. Individual who is unhappy with his/her job even may not even understand this or need not necessarily spoke out rightly that he is unhappy with the job but there are some signals which the individual and the Managers /HR managers should understand

The Signals include feeling distracted, sluggish, angry, not sleeping well or excess sleeping, relying on alcohol comfort oneself, withdrawing from friends and activities. All this indicate underlying depression or anxiety, which shouldn't be ignore by both the parties

What the individual do to make it a happy workplace

One mantra to make one happy is; to see if he/ she can upgrade contribution to the company, and if this doesn’t work then

1) Confront the reality: Economic climate makes it more difficult to leave a job, but it doesn't mean one should feel stuck. Confront the reality "Accept that this job is not where you want to be, even if you can't make a change today. But begin taking steps to change things." McCarthy seconds this advice. "Practice radical acceptance," she says. "Tell yourself, 'This is where I am, this is where I'm going to be for a certain amount of time. You have more control over how you think than you realize. Understand what you're feeling, and that if you show up to work irritated, it affects your performance.

2) Planning : Brainstorming with trusted friends and family members about one’s ideas can help a lot . If one has suggestions, they can be discussed; as to how they will improve one performance as well as others. One could also try learning new skills, at the very least; it may help one prepare for another job.

3) Think positive: Note down all the good points about one’s job also termed as a benefit log. One may be thankful to have perquisites or like coworkers, or the fact that one has to commute short. Listing what one like about the job will help shift the perception and keep one from feeling so trapped.

Principles to Remember
Do
- Differentiate between what you can change and what you can't.
- Take responsibility for making a change.
- Focus on making the best of a bad situation.
Don't
- Assume nothing will ever change.

image source : bodybusiness.com.au

Poor…. Poverty ……!!!!!

“A country is poor because it is poor” and similarly “A person is poor because he is poor” the explanation of this concept can be given by vicious circle i.e. A complex of events that reinforces itself through a feedback loop toward greater instability

Let us first talk about the country and then we will come back to individuals and will see how the vicious circle leading to perpetual events and leading to poor country or individuals

A country is poor because

1) The country have Low capital/ capital investment with the country for progressing and

development

2) Low capital/ capital investment leads to low capital formation
3) Low capital formation leads to lower growth of industries
4) Less industries results in low employment ration
5) Low employment leads to low income
6) Low income cause poverty
7) Poverty cause low saving
8) Low saving causes low investment
9) Low investment again leading to low capital


An individual is poor because

1) He is having low capital to progress and look for earning avenues
2) Low capital leads to low capital formation
3) Low capital formation leads to low income
4) Low income leads to poverty
5) Poverty cause low saving
6) Low saving causes low investment
7) Low investment again leading to low capital

Who says "Sky is the limit"

We have been using adage “Sky is the limit” many times But looking at the current prices of vegetables or food basket this adage needs an amendment to “heaven is the limit” as the prices of staple food items dosen;t seems to be coming down in the very immediate future. Prices of staple items like potatoes, onions and pulses are sky rocketing as a result the food inflation rose to 14.55 per cent in the first week of November. On a weekly basis, inflation rose 0.87 percentage points from 13.68 per cent.

If we have an yearly comparison of the commodities prices of potatoes shot up by 102.47 per cent, onions by 38.24 per cent and pulses by 27.03 per cent. Experts feel that prices of food items will continue to remain at an elevated level unless there is a bumper rabi crop.
There is virtually nothing from the food basked that is showing a declining trend in terms of pricing on a yearly basis.

Rice appreciated by 11.65 per cent, wheat by 12.60 per cent and milk by 11.29 per cent. However, on the weekly basis, poultry chicken and fruits & vegetables became cheaper by one per cent each. Some analyst believes that the inflation is because of bad monsoon earlier and things will not improve till a bumper rabi crop is harvested. (Refer How Monsoon can affect my country)

With price of commodities rising with each passing day the household budgets are getting crashed and common people are forced to compromise on many things to maintain there budget within there limits. Fruits, green vegetables and pulses are a passé for poor people, If my brothers and sisters don’t eat a proper diet, how my country will grow? Because growth of a country also depend on healthy workforce. This is a big question for which we should seek a solution.

Image source: fruitsandvegetables.org.uk

Learning Organization

According to Peter Senge the learning organization can be defined as “Organization with an ingrained philosophy for anticipating, reacting and responding to change, complexity and uncertainty.”

Learning organization learns and encourages learning among its employees. Organization promotes exchange of information between employees and hence creates a more knowledgeable workforce


Culture of learning organization and there beliefs

1. There is a Stress on continual learning.
2. Every one can be a source of ideas, so people are given access to any information that can be of value to them.
3. People closest to the problem have the best ideas to solve it, so empowerment is there.
4. Learning flows up and down the hierarchy.
5. New ideas are encouraged and celebrated.
6. Mistakes are viewed as learning opportunities.
7. Organization show Holistic approach to the problem statement.
8. Organizations show Willingness to accept failure.
9. They develop a sense of personal efficacy.
10. They Develop creativity, personal flexibility and willingness to take risks.

Triple bottom line

The triple bottom line abbreviated as "TBL" or "3BL", and also known as "people, planet, profit". Triple bottom line accounting means expanding the traditional reporting framework to take into account ecological and social performance in addition to financial performance. A commitment to corporate social responsibility implies a commitment to some form of TBL reporting.


“People” Component means fair and beneficial business practices toward labour ,community and region in which the organization conducts its business.

“Planet” this component implies that the organization is reducing its ecological footprint by carefully managing its consumption of energy, reducing manufacturing waste and emitting less toxic waste.

“Profit" As we know and understand is the economic value created by the organization after deducting the cost of all inputs from its revenue

Image source: novonordisk.com

Gold Gold & Gold

All those who have invested in gold are delighted and counting there profits with every passing day (with gold touching new highs every day) but the sad part is for the thousands of people who are into jewelry making business. With gold touching it all time high, the demand of jewellery has drastically fallen giving a tougher time to the Artisans who were earlier employed with the jewelry shops are now at the mercy of market realties

With each rising day the loyalty of gold lovers is getting tilted to pure gold bars as compared to ornaments & jewellery, artisans believe that this is a temporary phase and people will come back to what they like the most (jewelleries) as soon as the prices get stabilized.

But there are no concrete reasons of gold pricing hitting back to price of (10000- 12000 per 10 gms) instead a price of 20000 per 10 gms seems to have concrete reasons.

China is emerging as super power in Gold, it have gold reserves of 1054 tonnes as on April, 2009, 1200 odd mines and still striving to increase the production. This move might be to safeguard itself from $ fluctuation and for diversification of the reserves.

Recently India's central bank bought 200 metric tons of gold from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last month. This is again a move to diversify its foreign-exchange reserves.

With two major consumer countries (known to me) opting for God to diversify there foreign exchange reserves I believe more countries will join this rally and demand for gold will be there, so the question of price coming down is ruled out.

Apart from this India is an importer of gold, whatever we produce is not sufficient to fulfill our demand, so gold import will be there and will provide more support to high price of gold.

image source: http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/

Will it shine more?

Right from the investors to traders everyone seems to be happy with the recent spurt in the prices of gold. Analyst are predicting the prices to shoot up to 2000 $ per ounce but even there are predictions of the precious metal touching 800 $ per ounce.

The argument for the 2000$ price tag being that the US economy require further stimulus packages, which will weaken the dollar and the current rally in gold is because of dollar getting weaken.

The argument for 800$ price tag being that the U.S. economy is emerging from the recession and the gold prices are rising without any fundamental factors so it is bound to come down.

But as of now the gold prices are high as investors are option the precious metal instead of currency market.

Image source http://www.crestock.com/

Networking sites

People get introduced to each other; know each other liking/disliking, hobbies, aspirations and interest and finally agreed to each other as partners.

You will ask what’s new about that. This is what generally happens before one prepares himself/ herself for any sort of partnership.

Well the new thing here is the platform through which people are getting introduced, yup you guess right I’m talking about the internet as a medium and networking sites as platform.

This is not a new buzz I’m sharing with you; even you might have some real examples in your friend’s circle of marriages and relationship happening over internet.

But the latest buzz is the euphoria created about the networking sites, I’ll not name the site but the fact is that everyone (corporate, individuals) are hooked for creating there profiles on such networking sites. I do not know the utility of creating buzz and making people follow you, but the fact is that the concept is getting accepted by people now a day.

The current offerings of social networks are imitations of things that are already available on the Internet, newsgroup, searches, chat, search colleague, friend, batch mates etc. I would like to share a survey report published on stockwatch.in. "Net working sites are the best way to reach out to friends and family, but such sites are costing the British businesses a loss of almost 1.38 billion pounds a year"

According to the survey, almost 50 per cent of the office staff is actively using these social networking sites for personal use during the office hours, which results in a waste of 40 minutes in one week. The IT services company who commissioned the survey, said the true cost to the economy could be substantially higher than the £1.38bn estimate.

I would also like to share An interesting fact with you; There are a lot of networking sites originated from India but none of them became so popular as compared to there western counterpart, may be they know how to Position there product, create branding of there product, how to pack it and how to hook people to use it.

Happy Networking......

Image source gtashuttleservices.com

Commonality between companies and individuals.

When i was publishing my previous article on How to retain talent I observed something; that commonality exists between the individuals and the corporate thought process, the way they think for a solution and the way they address a given situation.

To compliment this I will elaborate some examples Remember the Global economic crises. What did the big/small corporate did? All of them went for a head reductions without worrying about there future goals/launches, about there market share, competitors moves, strategic positioning of theirs vis-à-vis there competitors.

Companies started reverse engineering for cost cutting. Let me explain, management gave a target to departments/ functions to reduce cost by say 20% now it was the department/ functions head responsibilities to reduce that many head which will help them to achieve the cost cutting target. Doesn’t it sound funny?

In most of the cases company were already having expansion plans and some of them have already invested in expanding in certain technological areas, geographical markets and operations where there performance was far below industry the industry standards. With the wave of head reduction all this expenses turned to sunk cost recovering which is next to impossible and getting back on track with all the previous plans and strategy seems to be a difficult proposition.

As per my school of though if the companies would have invested in technology, human resources, expansion they would have reaped huge benefits today and days to come. But the companies did the opposite way and to retain the status quo it will take years because in business 1 month delay is 1 year behind.

Similarly individuals too took wrong decision during the down time. Stock investors were watching there stocks falling and did nothing, when the stock prices hit the rock bottom prices they simply stayed away from market and exited there holding as soon as the stock price touched there purchase price, fearing that the price may fall any time.

If they would have invested (in the same stock which they were holding) when the stock prices were @ there bottom prices they could have attained a breakeven much before and could have made huge profits.
Most of the investors were scared and didn’t wanted to put there money in any of the risky propositions, investors were sitting on cash but were not willing to invest anywhere, all the money from stock market either moved to bank deposits or lost its value. If they would have shown courage of investing against risk they would have earned huge profits.

On the contrary there was/is no prudent way in which the downturn could have been handled, individuals/ corporates responded in there own way which they felt is the prudent way.

Ken Thompson said “Long-term success is not only determined by how well a company/individual handles a downturn, but also by its foresight in preparing for the next upturn. In the midst of a recession, we are often forced to restructure and control expenses, but those who focus only on the immediate crisis may be left behind when better times return.”

Image souce bioteams.com

Second dip…..!!!!!

Many of the economist and financial market guru’s believe that the next financial crisis may be in 2011. Some of those believe that this might be a dead cat bounce, or what economists term a double-dip recession.

But looking at the global market (as on today) seems that we are very close to the double-dip recession say by 3-6 months. The reason for me to believe this is because of all the global indexes falling below there support levels (US, India, Hong Kong).

Indian stock market are heading southwards from last 4-5 trading session and have broken there support level. These support level were crucial according to finance experts (I’m not among them) .

Keeping my fingers crossed for today’s opening bell, I pray to god that the index should open with a positive note as all the major global indexes are in +ive.

The reasons why we might be headed for a double dip recession based on artilce published in ft.com

1. Oil, energy and food prices are now rising faster than economic fundamentals warrant, and could be driven higher by excessive liquidity chasing assets and by speculative demand.
   
2. There are risks associated with exit strategies from the massive monetary and fiscal easing, If policy makers want to reduce fiscal deficits they will raise taxes, cut spending and mop up excess liquidity soon, they would undermine recovery and tip the economy back into stag-deflation. But if they maintain large budget deficits, bond market vigilantes will punish policymakers. Then, inflationary expectations will increase, long-term government bond yields would rise and borrowing rates will go up sharply, leading to stagflation.

Image source: http://www.soxfirst.com/

80-20

The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule,the law of the vital few, and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

The original observation was in connection with income and wealth. Pareto noticed that 80% of Italy's wealth was owned by 20% of the population. He then carried out surveys on a variety of other countries and found to his surprise that a similar distribution applied.

The rule also holds true in software development, sales and marketing and personal life even. This Rule holds true in my financial portfolio even, out of my total investment in Equity market I have generated handsome profits from only 20% of the scripts. 20% of my scripts eat up my 80% of the total investments and 20% of the scripts that are trading below my purchase price are accounting to my 80% loss.

Nobody has invested in the market and always emerged in a profitable position, you need to give time to the scripts and patiently watch them moving. But the conclusion here is whatever you invest 80-20 rule always get applied

20% of your portfolio gives you 80% of profit or vice versa

How to increase productivity

Happy people work better. The more one loves the job the better one performs. Thus, if the motivation levels are up and employee morale is high then higher levels of productivity are guaranteed. If a employee being proud to belong to the organization and vice versa, the employee put in whole and soul into his work and ensuring maximum output.

Human resources

Recognizing the individual capacities and abilities and appreciating each employee for what he is, and what contribution he makes to the organization is an important step towards achieving organizational development. For this, the organization is completely dependant on the "reporting managers". Top Management in the organization cannot know each individual as interaction levels are minimal. Thus, it is up to the middle level management to handle day to day situations and evaluate the resources who report them. Handling each person properly, knowing traits and assets as well as boosting them to overcome drawbacks, identifying areas for improvement are all important tasks to be carried out by middle management. This especially holds true with respect to IT, as pressures are high, deadlines are impossible and very often it is not possible to get a resource that is 100% fit for a particular job.

Reorganization and Acknowledgement

Nothing motivates a person more than recognition. A methodology of reward deserving resources is not only a way to ensure enhanced performance from the individual, but also motivate other members of the team to strive towards this recognition. Recognizes deserving candidates irrespective of the type of contribution they make towards the team's success. Organizations spent more than 50% their time and energy in hiring new resources without investing much time in the way their human resources can be retained. Fact is, it takes 25 to 30% more for organization to retain the existing qualified resource as compare to spending more than 50% in getting new resource as a replacement of an existing resource. Hitting when it is HotFor majority of people, to feel a sense of belonging is important not to feel left out. Thus, transparencies in dealings, as well as involvement in decisions are important communication channels that need to be open at all times. It is vital for resources to be aware of the directions that are being taken not only in their unit, but also across the organization. The content and timings of communications are important- to touch the employee at the right place and the right time - to ensure a stress free work culture, and a profitable one.

Empowerment

Empowerment brings responsibility. Thus empowerment serves as one of the most powerful tools of employee retention. If employees are involved in organizational aspects such as participation in decision making processes, implementation of certain best practices for which they get ownership, it creates a sense of belonging within the person and a reluctance to leave the employer if the option arises.

Source : http://breakroommedia.com

How to retain talent.

The basic step of employee retention is employee satisfaction, as they are no longer employees, but are Internal Customers to the organization. A strong association exists between employee retention and the quality of service delivered by the Organizations. If an employee feels sidelined or not getting due respect/returns, discord is unavoidable. Whenever talented employee leaves the organization it is not the employee but the organization who suffers the loss. The employee is never at loss because he being a performer gets better placement in a short duration but it take huge cost/time to the company to find a better/compatible replacement against that employee.

Loss Analysis Cost involved in losing a talented employee.

1. There is the cost involved in finding a replacement.
2. There is cost of training the replacement.
3. There is cost of not having someone to do the job in the meantime.
4. The loss of hold the person have on the workflow and processes
5. The loss of morale in co-workers.
6. The loss of trade secrets this person may now share with other
7. A person leaving an organization becomes its brand ambassador, for better or for worse

What employees want?

A universal truth is that every human being needs to be valued and same applies to the employees. Whether it is an employee or a friend or a family member, when a contribution is made, recognition is what one seeks. When an employee is contributing his/her nine hours a day to the organization, he has some expectation that succeed the salary cheque at the end of the month. He wants to be getting acknowledged that, he matters and makes a difference. Also the financial component too plays a major role because at the end of the day if that's not there then he feels that he has not been really been recognized for his worth?

People leave managers not companies.

An employee's expectations are less on financial fronts, but more towards how he's treated and how he is valued. Much of this depends directly on the immediate supervisor. If organization is losing good people, then their immediate supervisor are to be analyzed.

More than any other significant reasons, they are the reason people stay and thrive in an organization. "People leave managers not companies"

Analysis reveals that the employees leave because they have been pulled away by "more pay" or "better opportunity." Yet, more than 80 percent of employees leave because of the "push" factors related to poor management practices or toxic cultures that drove them out.

Festival season is over…..

After a week of relaxation, enjoyment things are getting back to the normal track.
People started gearing up for Diwali shopping, decoration and preparations at least 5-10 days ahead and you can might have felt the festival mood in the streets, home offices and everywhere.

As the diwali is over people are still having a handover of long vacations, some are tired of the hectic week, some are not able to believe that the vacations are over and for some the vacation will last till Sunday.

The strange thing we observe post diwali in Gujarat is the entire Gujarat is closed for 5 days, businessman and shopkeepers do not open there business establishments before Paacham, they do a Muhurat trading only on Paacham and after that only the normal business routine starts.

Doctors, Dispensaries, grocery shops, medical shop all are closed, literally everything comes to a stand still, No traffic on the roads, no traffic police, no crowd it seems that everything has come to a stand still.

You will not find traffic policeman penalizing offender instead inculcating the violators and wishing them a new year.

In Gujarat, New year starts post diwali i.e. “Vikram Samvat”, basically in Hindu religion new year starts On “Vikram Samvat” only, but the celebration and acceptance is worth seeing in Gujarat.

People visit relatives, elderones on new year to seek there blessings and everywhere fun, food, joy is in the air.

Image source: amitkulkarni.info

Warning system.

I remember there was a warning issued for a flood possibility in Delhi and the adjoining areas due to water released from upstream catchments area, lot of people along with there belonging were evacuated and relocated but by God’s grace no untoward happened.

There are severe floods in Andra, Karnataka and Goa and hundreds of causalities and millions rupees damage has been reported. If a warning was issued for capital why this warning couldn’t got initiated for the affected states? The state government could have better anticipated and prepared for systematic release of waters based on the daily increase of water level in the respective reservoirs and this situation could have been avoided.

In Andhra Pradesh, at least 37 people have died in the floods, and lakhs are in relief camps across the state.The death toll is expected to be higher as the administration currently doesn't have spare officials to count the dead. Thousands are reported missing, lakhs are still stranded. Overall, at least 18 lakh people in nearly 400 villages of Andhra Pradesh have been affected by the floods. 180 villages in Kurnool, 89 in Mahbubnagar, 100 in Guntur and 22 in Nalgonda are in bad shape due to the flood waters.

In karnataka in the last 24 hours, the number of dead in the Karnataka flood havoc has gone up from 130 to 170.Bijapur, Bagalkote, Raichur, Koppal and Gulbarga districts remain the worst affected. In Bijapur alone, more than 17 villages are marooned and over 10,000 people have been left homeless.

Disaster management or Recovery

Source: http://www.ndtv.com/

Alas! 9 days are over

The Nine days mega festival of dance, colors, joy was given a good buy yesterday. Though I didn’t go for garba neither I’m avid for night life but believe me not only me but most of the people are not very happy with the festival coming to an end. Everybody enjoyed masti, dining out and a colorful night life and wished that if this festival could continue for ever and ever.

I remember the last day of Navratri 27th Sep-09 when me along with my family were infront of the TV and chatting together, suddenly I wished to have ice –cream and I though of taking a chance with the nearby Ice Cream parlor. To my surprise it was 1.30 AM the parlor was open and lot of people were enjoying/ refreshing them after a long drill of dance.

I’ve been witnessing the enthu and spirit of people from last 9 years and seen it growing enormously.

Vibrant Gujarat

World largest gathering and longest duration dance festival. You can see People from all the age groups dressed in vibrant color dresses (Orange, pink, green, maroon and black ) and dancing to the Garba (Garba is an Indian form of dance that originated in the Gujarat region)tunes.

Even the guys who don’t know the steps of the Garba are dressed up in the traditional attire and adding to the vibrancy of the festival.

Both men and women usually wear colorful costumes while performing garba and dandiya. The girls and the women wear ghaghra choli, a three-piece dress with choli on the top and ghaghra as bottom, made of cotton with beads, shells, mirrors, sitars, and embroidery work, mati, jhumkas, necklaces, bindi, bajubandh, chudas and kangans, kamarbandh, payal, and mojiris and dupatta tucked in the Gujarati manner.

Boys and men wear kafni pyjamas with a kediyu - a short round kurta - above the knees and pagadi on the head with bandhini dupatta, kada, and mojiris.

To view the video footage click here.

Image Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/38798411@N00/368861543/

Management or Recovery

The term management is generally used when we talk something about to happen in future and the planning related to it. Take example of Project management, program management or event management. There are some specific individual or group of individuals who take the lead in this sort of management and are called managers.

Simultaneously you might have also heard of “Disaster Management Plan” or “disaster management”. But mind you according to the definition of management or what we call as management is related to future activities that are yet to happen and whom we want to execute in a prudent way. Is the word “disaster management” is an appropriate word because, I believe nobody wants to manage the disaster, so the word “disaster management” has to be rewritten as “disaster recovery” Because whenever there is a disaster we want to recover from it, we do not want to manage it.

Image source: http://www.itonecall.co.uk/protection.htm

Interest rate Futures

You might have heard the terms speculation, hedging, spot, future etc let me elaborate those terms in my language as per my understanding.

Speculation is about profit making while hedging is protecting one’s profit by minimizing losses and hence is a defensive strategy.

Future market (Price) differs from spot market (Price) because in future market the contracts are traded for future delivery of the particular commodity. The difference between the spot price and the current contract price is called the "basis." The basis equals the cash price minus the futures price.

The future price of any commodity depends on the underlying asset, if the price of underlying asset increases the future price is bound to price.

When one wants to hedge he has two options either “Going Short” or “Going Long”

“Going Short” is opted when it is believed that the prices of the underlying assets are going to come down, so the hedger sells the contract without owing it, later when the price of contract goes down (as per his speculation) he purchases the contract and squares off his/ her position.

“Going Long” is opted when it is believed that the prices of the underlying assets are going to go Up, so the hedger buys the contract, anticipating that the contract prices will go up. When price goes up the Hedger sell the contract, book his profit and square off his/ her position.

Let’s see how it work Say suppose I have to pay 100 thousand USD to my supplier 6 months down the line but I’m not very sure that what will be the dollar price at that point of time. If the dollar / rupee is 47 then my outflow will be 4700 thousand rupees but if it is 50 then my outflow will be 5000 thousand rupees means an additional outflow of 300 thousand Indian rupee, now I want to avoid this loss.

For this I will buy dollar future contract today (say quoting at 48 Rupees) and sell the contract 6 months down the line ( say price of the contract quoting somewhere around 50) through this deal I’ll earn a profit of 200 thousand Indian rupees which will help me in minimizing the losses made if I would have not done it.

Now futures for interest rate are also available I believe it is the right time looking at a greater uncertainty in the global economy and the higher movement in interest rate levels in India also.
The contracts will be settled in March, June, September and December. The maximum maturity will be 12 months. Deliverable securities under the futures should mature between 7.5 and 15 years with minimum outstanding of Rs10,000 crore.

Commercial banks can take trading positions for themselves but not on behalf of their clients. Non-resident Indians, companies, primary dealers and foreigners can also trade in this segment. Foreign investors can trade if they have the underlying security, but not for speculative purposes.

Image source: commoditiesandfuturesguide.com

Looking for solution/ Solution Provider

I’m looking forward for a solution provider/ or an Electrical Engineering company who can help me in create strong electromagnet and switch there polarity at a specific time period. Besides I also want the company/solution provider to help me in installing the solution with an reasonable charges.

The concept is same what is getting used in Japan in locomotive.

When an object “A” (having North Pole facing EM) is approaching EM another electro magnetic object the polarity of EM Should be south So that the both object attract each other, when the object “A” is very near to “EM” the “EM” should be neutral and when the object “A” has bypassed the object “EM” the polarity of “EM” should turn to North

Enclosed the working model of the function I'm looking for